Theological Anthropology in the Qur’anic Narratives of the Fall: A Contrastive Study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Nicolai Sinai notes the importance of an intertextual study of the Qur’an, observing how the Qur’an adapts and retells biblical and post-biblical stories in line with its own theological concerns. This article investigates the theological adaptation in the Qur’an’s Adam narratives, extending and nuancing earlier qur’anic Adam research. These narratives are examined, noting their distinctive features. Next, a broader qur’anic anthropology is described, before an analysis of whether and how the qur’anic Adam narratives align with this broader qur’anic anthropology. The divergences between the biblical and qur’anic accounts of Adam are studied and three are examined in detail: human responsibility, khalīfa and imago Dei, and divine response. These are shown to have significant theological implications, which are discussed. These divergences are considered in the light of a broader qur’anic anthropology and the Qur’an’s own theological vision. The article shows that, regarding the Adam narratives, the Qur’an’s broader theological vision shapes its individual narratives in a way that contrasts with their biblical and post-biblical antecedents. The theological differences embedded in the biblical and qur’anic Adam stories are best interpreted as representative of two distinct theological visions.